Grandmother sues officers after she claims they broke her arm
A 74-year-old grandmother is suing three Oklahoma City Police Department officers for excessive force after she said they allegedly broke her arm while serving an arrest warrant for her son last year.
Attorneys for Ruby Jones announced Tuesday that they filed an amended lawsuit against Oklahoma City, officers Dan Bradley, Ryan Staggs and James Ray, and called for their termination. Jones, who is Black, was in tears as she described their actions that led to her injury.
“They pulled it back and they pulled it all the way up my back,” she said. “I know, it was God that spared my life, because I would have been dead …”
Bodycam video released by the department in February showed the officers walking to Jones’ home last summer, stating that they have a warrant for her son, Chauncey Jones. Despite asking the officers to show the warrant, they continued inside.
At one point during the video, she asked officers to not shoot her 43-year-old son because he suffered from bipolar depression and told them multiple times that he did not have a gun. In the footage, as they detained her, she complains about having a heart condition and one of the officers is overheard saying, “I don’t care.” When they put the handcuffs on her and pulled her from her arms, she screamed and said they were hurting her. Police then brought Jones outside and held her in the patrol car for almost an hour.
In a statement after the video was released, police said Jones never asked for medical attention, but acknowledged that she complained about her arm and officers should have “made greater efforts to de-escalate the situation prior to resorting use of force.”
“Corrective action to include discipline and training has been taken to help ensure that future calls like this one are handled in a more appropriate manner,” police said.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by CBS affiliate KWTV, the younger Jones allegedly called a behavioral health center the same day and threatened to blow it up.
Damario Solomon-Simmons, Jones’ attorney, said Tuesday that the lawsuit is just one step they’re taking.
“Oklahoma City has a long history of treating Black people and particularly, Black women, as less than,” he said. “That’s why we are filing this lawsuit. That’s why we are calling on these officers to be terminated.”
The attorney also said that they’re sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking them to investigate the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Solomon-Simmons told CBS News on Wednesday that Ms. Jones is in counseling and still suffering from the physical and mental impact of the incident.
“Her life has completely turned upside down since this happened in August,” he said.
CBS News reached out to the police department, but they did not have any new comment on the incident.
This lawsuit also comes on the heels of a lawsuit involving another incident of aggressive force by police that has captured national attention. An Army lieutenant sued Virginia police after he was held at gunpoint, handcuffed and doused with pepper spray during an illegal traffic stop by Windsor police officers in December. One of the officers in the incident has since been fired.
